blink.lk

How did Hampden Lane become Hamden Lane, Pennyquick Lane become Penniequick Lane and Pereira Lane become Pareira Lane? alt

This seems to be a recurring phenomenon in Wellawatte, where there seems to be many spelling mistakes on the signboards.   This has not gone unnoticed by old timers of the area.

A letter to the editor of the Daily News, signed WRP from Wellawatte says, that for over a year now the “CMC Engineers English” is being displayed to the public and even chides the English reading public for their apathy in letting this go. He says “It’s because we have accepted our re-education in English by the CMC”.

English is a Strange Language

The CMC Engineers carelessness with spellings on name boards can completely change the character and historic value of a place. What is worse is that the other two languages take its cue from the pronunciation of the English version. But then again English is a strange language and some names are not pronounced the way they are spelt.

(See below for more pictures)

For example: Hampden is pronounced Hamden and written in Sinhala it sounds the same way it is pronounced – Ham-den, which is a relief instead of it being made to sound as Hamp-den.

alt Colonial Origin

Many of these road names that still remain unchanged to remember the illustrious people, after who they were named, come from our colonial past which brings with it a rich history.   However there is hardly anyone left to tell us how Hampden Lane and Pennyquick Lane came into being. A quick Google shows a Hampden Lane in North London and a Pennyquick Park in Bath, South West England which gives us some indication to where the names come from.

However, we think that the municipality has take some note of this letter to the editor, as on our recent visit to Wellawatte, we saw that Penniequick Lane had been repainted as Pennyquick.


Waatha Kammal Para?

WRP in his letter says, the way the CMC Engineers are going about changing road names, where Flower Road (In Colombo 7) has become ‘Malpara’; the Front Street (in Pettah) might soon become ‘Issaraha Para’ and Gasworks Street (in Pettah) would become ‘Waatha Kammal Para’. alt

On the same page there was another letter to the editor where Wimalasiri De Mel of Moratuwa points out the change-of-names, roads in certain sections of Galle Road have been subjected to. What was once simply known in the past as Old Galle Road and New Galle Road in the Egodauyana-Walana areas have now been changed to W.D Amaradeva Mawatha and Tyronne Fernando New Galle Road. He also noted similar changes that took place in the past where Moratuwa Railways Station Road was changed to E.T. de Silva Mawatha and the Egodauyana Railway Station Road to T.L.C Peiris Mawatha.

To top it all off, despite these changes, the blissfully unaware public continue to call these roads by their original names.

alt	alt		alt